Sanitation and Water Disposal Sites

The Work Projects Administration (WPA) project undertook grading and culvert construction efforts in Cimarron County along Oklahoma State Route 325, between Kenton and Boise City. As of 2018 more than 20 structures along this stretch of road bear a shield-shaped WPA imprint stamp. What is known in an ODOT historic survey as structure 'X' bears a 1940 WPA stamp on its northeast superstructure. (The stamp is on the northeast side of the road, facing southwest.) The culvert is located on Route 325, east of Kenton, a driving distance of 8.4 miles.

1939 MDC annual report: "A by-pass and traffic circle were constructed on Old Colony Parkway at Mount Vernon Street and Columbia Circle, Dorchester. Incidental work included the reconstruction of a storm sewer overflow. All work was done under P.W.A. Docket No. Mass. 1512-F, Massachusetts State Project No. D-206"

The heart of today's Greenbelt, Maryland – popularly known as "Old Greenbelt" – is a large, planned community laid out and constructed during the New Deal. It features community facilities such as a school, theater and community center, a large number and variety of housing, basic infrastructure of roads, water and sewers, and extensive landscaping and an attached forest.  Almost all of the original facilities are still intact. Greenbelt was one of four greenbelt towns initiated by Rex Tugwell, head of the Resettlement Administration (RA). Greendale, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee, and Greenhills, Ohio, near Cincinnati, are other surviving greenbelt towns; a fourth,...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a privy (outhouse) for Old St. Hilary Church in Tiburon, California, in the 1930s.  The WPA constructed thousands of such privies around the country during the New Deal as a public health measure.  This wooden outhouse has a concrete base, with both a women's and gents' side. The historic information sheet on site is ambiguous as to the time this outhouse was in active use.  It may have been in operation only until 1940, but more likely continued until a modern restroom was constructed in the 1960s.   After it was retired, St. Hilary outhouse has been...

In 1940, the Work Projects Administration was constructing storm drains throughout Los Angeles, CA. One drain was located on Olympic Boulevard, "in the very heart of Los Angeles. The basic structure is of reinforced concrete, the mainline is from 5 to 12 feet in diameter with dozens of connecting laterals, catch-basins and catch basin connections on principal downtown streets which have been flooded, completely cluttering up traffic during the heavy rainfall of the brief California winter period" (see photos).

The PWA helped to fund drainage and irrigation systems for Orange County, Texas.

"Orchard Beach State Park is located on the shore of Lake Michigan, two miles north of the center of Manistee. The park's 211 acres are split by M-110 and it is the portion west of the highway, comprising 57 acres, that is included in this nomination. This section is one-quarter of a mile wide at its widest point, one-half of a mile long and has 3000 feet of shoreline. The park's terrain is gently rolling and sparsely wooded with a steep bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. Many trees and shrubs planted by the CCC are still growing within the park, as...

In Spring 1939, the DC government used funds from the Public Works Administration (PWA) to award contracts for the Outfall Relief Sewer project, a large sewer line to run from the Poplar Point Pumping Station to a point near the Blue Plains Disposal Plant (today’s Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant). The Diamond Construction Company was awarded a contract for $423,116 to build one section of the line, while the Wagner-Larsen Construction Company contracted to build a second section for $293,049. Work on the Outfall Relief Sewer started on May 17, 1939, and was completed in mid-1940. This project was part of...

In 1937, the Works Progress Administration came out and installed an outhouse at the farm where I now live. Apparently the farmhands were just going in the fields. To make it more sanitary, the WPA put in a beautiful little building, complete with two toilets, side-by-side, with wooden seats, covers that closed, and a concrete urinal. It's in remarkably good shape for being almost 80 years old. It even had electricity and a light so you could go at night!

Several outhouses in Grouse Creek were erected by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1939. The outhouses feature inscriptions in their cement foundations.

In 1939, the Public Works Administration (PWA) contributed $70,375 towards an extension of the Oxon Run Interceptor, a large sewer line in southeast Washington DC. This was part of a large-scale New Deal program of new and extended sewers (storm and sanitary) for the District of Columbia. The original section of the Oxon Run Interceptor had been installed in 1938-1939 using municipal funds only (i.e., not PWA). It started at the Blue Plains wastewater treatment plant and from there ran in an easterly or northeasterly direction. PWA funds extended the Interceptor another 4,925 feet, from roughly 1st Street to Thirteenth Street SE....

This gas run sewage plant was desperately needed when it was built in the early 30s. The plant was built near the then recently developed Bay Front lands in Palo Alto. It relieved sewage problems for both the city of Palo Alto and Stanford University. "Construction was started about the middle of December, 1933. By July 1, 1934, the construction of the new sewers and the outfall line to the bay had been completed, and the construction of the plant had progressed far enough so that the basic parts of the plant - pumping plant, clarifier, and digester - could be...

In 1940, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed sewers on Pennsylvania Avenue, Thirty-Eighth Street, and Alabama Avenue in the district's southeast quadrant. This work was part of a massive New Deal era program for Washington of sewer construction, separation of sanitary and storm sewers, and sewage treatment at the new Blue Plains facility in order to clean up the badly polluted Anacostia and Potomac Rivers.

WPA Project No. 645-61-2-87, Application date 10/12/38, $10,806, Total Funds $12,789, Average Employed 68, "Install auxiliary lateral sewers, with manholes and other necessary appurtenances, on Philpot Avenue in the City of Selma, Dallas County, and perform work incidental and appurtenant thereto. City-owned property. No taxes or assessments will levied to cover the amount of Federal funds expended on this project. In addition to projects specifically approved."

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted millions of dollars (not even adjusted for inflation) of improvement and development work at the Picatinny Arsenal and a sub-installation, the Lake Denmark Naval Ammunition Depot, in New Jersey. Work involved the construction and improvement of storage facilities and various utilities. One WPA project description: Repair and rehabilitate buildings, utilities, equipment, water supply, and purification, water and sewer lines, transportation facilities, and airport, improve plumbing, heating, and electrical installations, landscape, grade, and drain grounds, also includes the construction of storage buildings officers quarters extension to storage buildings, officers quarters, extension to carpenter shop, change houses,...

The Works Progress Administration installed new sewer lines on Pilestraede in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas.

In 1933, the Public Works Administration allotted $400,000 for the construction of the Piney Branch Relief Sewer, a storm sewer running from Arkansas and Iowa avenues NW to 5th and Ingraham streets NW, for a distance of 4,600 feet. A contract for the work, in the amount of $326,020, was awarded to the M.A. Cardo Engineering Corporation of New York City. (Washington Post, June 28 and Sept. 1, 1933) In its June 28, 1933 edition, the Evening Star explained that the Piney Branch Relief Sewer was “needed to prevent floods during heavy rainstorms at Fifth and Ingraham streets and to prevent sewer...

"In Placer County, several buildings and beautification projects were funded entirely or in part by the WPA. A June 24, 1939 article in the Placer Herald noted several WPA projects in the region such as the City Hall and Firehouse building; thousands of feet of rock wall throughout town; the sidewalk, wall, and landscaping work at the Veterans Memorial Hall; Placer Junior College (now Placer High School); a new addition to the Auburn Grammar School; the Placer Union High School Gymnasium; the new Auburn Fairgrounds; and work at the Auburn Ski Club grounds in Cisco."

Among the Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects identified as completed in an El Paso Times article from June 7, 1936 was the "grading of Portland Avenue, $14,225.79."

Sanitary sewer, municipal waterworks, and power grid construction projects were all undertaken in Middletown, Delaware during the Great Depression, enabled by federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. Work began in 1937. (PWA Docket No. DE W1021, X1031)

"The city of Pueblo formerly discharge its sewage into the Arkansas River, which greatly endangered the health of many communities in Colorado and Kansas and which depended upon this river for their water supply. The State board of health required this condition to be remedied and this was done with P.W.A. aid. The equipment at the new plant consists of two digestion tanks each 65 feet in diameter, seven trickling filtration units each 160 feet in diameter, two 80-foot primary clarifiers, and two 80-foot final clarifiers. The sewage volume of Pueblo is abnormally large, considering its population of...

Multiple New Deal agencies: the Public Works Administration (P.W.A.), Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.), Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.), and National Youth Administration (N.Y.A.) left an indelible imprint on Purdue University with many notable construction and improvement projects. Robert Topping: Elliott once summarized federal grants and expenditures made since 1933, pat of the national effort to shore up the United States economy. The PWA, for example, had spent $700,000 toward construction of five new buildings—two units of the women's residence halls (Windsor Halls), the Executive Building (Hovde Hall of Administration), a fieldhouse and gymnasium (Lambert Fieldhouse), and an addition to the Purdue Memorial...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a disposal plant in Putnam CT, circa 1936-1937. The WPA-built facilities included the control house and plant filter beds.

The Works Progress Administration installed a new sewer line on Queen Street in Frederiksted.

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation provided 22 loans to drainage districts in Mississippi in 1934, totaling $2,726,150. The Red Banks district received $26,000. From the Coldwater River, Byhalia Creek, Red Banks Creek, and a canal 11 miles long ran through the counties of Marshall and Desoto, and into the Pigeon Roost Creek and Pigeon Roost Drainage Canal.

Exact location and current status not known.

The Works Progress Administration built a culvert on Reno Ave in Harrah, in 1941. Contributor note: "This culvert handles water run-off frm the drainage ditch on the north side of Reno Avenue. The water runs through the culvert north-south under Reno Avenue. The opening in this culvert is approximately 2 ft. high by 6 ft. wide. Unlike most culverts in this area which were built in 1939, this culvert was constructed in 1941."    

Multiple municipal improvement projects were conducted in West Hartford in 1937-8 utilizing Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor. One such project involved storm sewer construction along the adjacent Richard St., Seymour St., and Thomas St.

"During the depression years, the W.P.A. put in curbs and gutters in the city and built an additional industrial sewer line. Extensive plantings of watermelons and a variety of truck crops were followed shortly by vineyards and orchards. Today, the farming community of Ripon is made up primarily of almond orchards and grape vineyards." - History of Ripon

"Consisting of two 18-foot spans, the steel multiplate arch culvert is faced with local volcanic fieldstone. Constructed in 1936, the culvert remains intact as a good example of one of the smaller bridges built by the Works Progress Administration during the years of the Great Depression."   (www.historycolorado.org)

The River Des Peres runs through St. Louis and forms the backbone of the sanitary and stormwater systems of the city. In the 1930s, the river was channelized by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Horner & Shifrin, and the WPA as a flood control and public health measure.  The river extends from University in an arc to south St. Louis to empty into the Mississippi River. Portions of the “River” are underground, particularly through Forest Park. The work done by the WPA to line the muddy banks of the river was done in response to infestation of mosquitoes in...

CWA retaining wall project at the River Street ramp of the Hill-to-Hill Bridge was approved in 1933 and construction began in January 1934. In addition to the retaining wall, the roadway was rebuilt "to provide proper drainage" (Projects, 1935, p. 18). Northampton County experienced delays in a number of CWA projects approved in 1933, and the Hill-to-Hill Bridge work was one of the two (other was City Hall project in Easton) that were priority resumptions when others were delayed. River Street is located on Sands Island.

"In 1941, WPA workers built the visitors' center, a fountain and stone entrance walls at Riverview Park on the North Side, a project spearheaded by Griswold. Out-of-work Pittsburghers also made drainage repairs, paved roads and improved entrances in Riverview Park, Ms. Rademacher said."

During its brief life in the winter of 1933-34, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) hired unemployed workers to improve the streets of Pinedale, Wyoming, with drainage works and gravel surfaces. According to Michael Cassity (2012) the work included: "streets of town graveled, streets drained, culverts replaced, ten new culverts built."

To help alleviate pollution in Rock Creek, the Public Works Administration (PWA) granted approximately $3,500,000 for the creation of a massive new sewer system serving Crestwood, Petworth and surrounding areas in 1939-1941. The trunk sewer lines were constructed by private contractors, one of which was the Philadelphia construction company of Joseph Lombardi. Beginning near the intersection of 16th Street and Arkansas Avenue (northwest), the system runs southwest down Piney Branch Parkway, under the National Zoo, and then south.  It splits into two lines, one along each side of Rock Creek: the western line to carry storm water runoff and the eastern to...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed a sanitary sewer along Rodman Street in Middletown, New York.

This project, sponsored by the PWA, was intended to provide work and to improve the sanitary condition of farms homes in terms of toilet facilities. Men were put to work throughout county building “bungalows” which were later moved onto farms, where the owners or renters had applied for them. The only cost to the farmer was for materials for the privies.

This culvert was constructed by the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938. It is located on the east side of town, on Blakeley Avenue (east of the tracks). this culvert flows north/south and carries run-off from Rush Creek. The tunnel measures approximately 3 ft. high by 8 ft. wide. On the culvert curbing, the WPA stamp shows 1938.

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the sewage disposal plant in Saint Albans. The work involved building the main structure and the settling tanks. Docket No. 4744-(Vt.). The exact location of this facility is unknown to the Living New Deal.